Anne Kort

Anne's research is on the functional morphology of Paleogene mammals. Using three-dimensional analysis of X-ray microtomographic scans, she is investigating the unusually robust lumbar structure of the oxyaenid creodont Patriofelis, which resembles that of some ungulates more than it does typical carnivorous mammals.

Creodonts are an extinct group of carnivorous mammals that occupied some of the same ecological roles as the still extant group Carnivora. Anne's research is helping to determine just how similar the specializations in the two groups were, which is relevant to determining whether true carnivorans represent an ecological replacement of creodonts (as might happen through competition) or whether the two groups were specialized on different kinds of environments.

Patriofelis is an example of a creodont whose functional morphology seems to differ in important ways from all members of Carnivora. It has an unusual combination of skeletal features that have led previous workers to variously interpret it as aquatic, arboreal, and terrestrial.